Boardroom Governance with Evan Epstein

Peter Gleason: CEO of NACD on 2024 Board Practices and Oversight Surveys – Trends and Takeaways

Episode Summary

Peter Gleason is the President and CEO of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD). In this podcast, we talk about the results of board practices and oversight surveys conducted by NACD on technology oversight, CEO succession planning, board leadership succession, and board reporting. We also discuss some of NACD’s Blue Ribbon Commission Reports on culture as the foundation (2023), and technology oversight (2024). We then address the upcoming NACD Annual Summit in Washington DC, and navigating geopolitical and increased politicization in the boardroom. If you like this show, please consider subscribing, leaving a review, or sharing this podcast on social media. You can also contribute as a Patron on the link patreon.com/BoardroomGovernancePod or you can subscribe to the Boardroom Governance Newsletter at evanepstein.substack.com This podcast is sponsored by the American College of Governance Counsel.

Episode Notes

(0:00) Intro.

(1:23) About the podcast sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel.

(2:10) Start of interview. *Reference to prior episode with Peter (E83 from Jan 2023).

(3:00) NACD Surveys on Board Practices and Oversight: Private Company Results and Public Company Results.

(3:44) 1/ On Technology Oversight: "We are seeing boards go after technology, not necessarily expertise, but experience."

(11:16) 2/ On CEO Succession Planning. "Succession is always a challenge at companies, especially with founder CEOs."

(14:37) 3/ On Board Leadership Succession Planning. "Governance is more art than science, it depends on the board."

(20:26) 4/ On Board Reporting. Reference to paper on Netflix Governance by Larcker and Tayan (2018). 

(23:43) NACD's BRC Report on Culture as the Foundation. *Reference to episode with Sonita Lontoh (June 2024).

(25:23) NACD's BRC Report on Technology Oversight. *Reference to episode with Nora Denzel (Oct 2022).

(32:12) On Cybersecurity concerns for boards and directors.

(33:56) On AI concerns for boards and directors.

(35:27) On trend of alternative corporate structures used by new AI companies including public benefit corporations.

(41:41) On the upcoming NACD Directors Summit Oct 6-9, 2024, in Washington, DC. *My reference to keynoting the 25th IBGC Summit in Brazil.

(46:35) On geopolitics and the increasing politicization of the boardroom.

Peter Gleason has been the CEO of NACD since 2017.